YOUR GUIDE TO WISCONSIN’S EXTRAORDINARY CHEESEMAKERS

You won’t brie-lieve these cheeses

Wisconsin is a state that loves cheese, and its cheesemakers are second to none, producing varieties that win international awards while delighting customers back home. Here are a few of our favorite Wisconsin cheese producers—ones that produce classics like cheddar and curds but also have a few surprises in their cheese cases.

This family-owned cheese factory is a Marshfield institution. Nasonville Dairy been around 150 years and has been wowing generations of cheese lovers with its unique varieties like Scorpion Cheddar. As you might guess, this scorpion has a sting—it tops the charts at 500,000 Scoville Heat Scale Units (that’s hotter than a Habanero pepper)! But it’s not even the hottest cheese in this dairy. Nasonville‘s Carolina Reaper clocks in at a whopping 1.57-2.2 million Scoville units—that’s a cheese that’s perfect for adventurous eaters (and maybe even home defense)! Nasonville makes 80 varieties of cheese, including plenty of delicious mild flavors like Colby Jack Marble Cheese. Learn more.

Carr Valley Cheese has been around for a century, and the current cheesemaker at the helm has won more national and international awards than any cheesemaker in North America. Sid Cook is a certified master cheesemaker who received his first cheesemaking license in 1968 at age 16. He’s taken his craft to the highest level, and his Canaria, Sweet Vanilla Cardona and Swiss Almond Cheese Spread all won top honors at the 2016 World Cheese Awards. You can buy Sid’s fine cheeses at the Carr Valley Cheese retail outlet in Middleton.

This operation in the Stevens Point Area in central Wisconsin is a goliath. It makes an incredible amount of cheese, turning out 500,000 pounds a day. That works out to 35,000 pounds an hour, or nearly 10 pounds of cheese a second! To produce all this goodness, Mullins gathers milk from 750 dairy farms in 23 Wisconsin counties. It produces delicious cheddars, pepper cheeses, curds and more—75 varieties in all. Sample these delicious flavors—and take a video tour of the facility—on your next visit to Mullins’ retail operation north of Stevens Point.

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